REUTERS/Robert Galbraith
Summary:
Karel Baloun was the first senior software engineer hired at Facebook in 2005. This was after the Accel round of funding, when Facebook truly began to staff up and grow up. Baloun was only at Facebook for a year, from 2005 to 2006, but he provides some amazing insights about the company. What was Facebook’s culture like in 2005? What were the key innovations that ultimately let Facebook succeed where others failed? Would Zuckerberg make a good President of the United States? What became of Pokey, the mascot Facebook once considered launching?
You can buy Karel’s 2007 book here.
[…] Internet History Podcast: Facebook’s first senior software engineer, Karel Baloun Few people in their 30s will ever find themselves in a situation in which they work for an 18-year old boss. Karel Baloun did when he joined Facebook in 2005 as the first senior software engineer. Definitely worth listening to how he recalls this unusual situation and period at Facebook. […]
these podcasts are terrific. This one with Karel also. But the Zuckerberg praise was quite a bit over the top. We just had Google forcing a foundation to take down a critical post. PR is very important to Google and FB. Could Karel have an incentive to slobber all over the richest person in the world?
( search “google foundation controversy” in google and bing. Nothing on “new america foundation” on google. On Bing, that is the first 3 of 4 results. Do these mega tech companies ever not serve their own interests? )